Browse "Performances"

Aeriosa Dance Society merges contemporary dance with mountain-climbing skills to create performances that take place on the outside of tall buildings, utilizing the walls, ledges, rooftops and open sky of the architectural setting.

The Alberta Ballet Company was founded in Edmonton in 1958 by Ruth Carse as an amateur troupe under the name of Dance Interlude. It was incorporated in 1961 as the Edmonton Ballet Company and reconstituted in 1966 as a professional dance ensemble under its present name. Carse retired in 1975.

R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis is a theatrical musical pageant in two parts — Part 1: John's Vision is adapted from the book of Revelation, about the end times, while Part 2: Credo is a serene and ecstatic meditation on the majesty of God. A massive and complex production that requires at least 500 performers, Apocalypsis was commissioned by the CBC in 1976 and premiered at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario, on 28 November 1980, as part of the city’s 125th anniversary. William Littler called it “one of the most spectacular events in the history of Canadian music.” In 2015, Toronto’s Luminato Festival closed with an acclaimed, $1.5 million production featuring a cast of nearly 1,000 musicians, singers, conductors, dancers and actors. The score to Part 1 and Part 2 are published separately and available through Schafer’s Arcana Editions (Part 1, 1981; Part 2, 1986).

Music bands are large instrumental ensembles consisting mainly of brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Traditionally, bands have been associated with outdoor activities or ceremonies, e.g., to accompany marching, add cheer to festivities, and contribute to the pomp of state occasions. The symphonic (concert) band is a modern refinement; the jazz and dance band are distant relations. The predominance of bands over orchestras and chamber ensembles was due also to the fact that band instruments can be learned more quickly than string or keyboard instruments. Furthermore, the extroverted music and vigorous sound of bands, their suitability for rousing patriotic emotions, and their usefulness in enhancing non-musical events made them popular.

Chamber music performance. Early evidence of the cultivation of classical chamber music in Canada, mainly by amateur performers, both as an edifying leisure activity and in public concerts, dates from the period 1790-1820.

Children's concerts. Symphony concerts for children in North America began in 1883 under Theodore Thomas in New York. His programs were built around established light concert works such as the William Tell Overture or The Blue Danube Waltz.

Las Vegas is the last place you would expect to find art. The city rises from the Nevada desert like a pop-up cartoon of American consumerism.This article was originally published in Maclean's Magazine on July 27, 1998

COMUS Music Theatre of Canada. Organization operating 1975-87 in Toronto (its name derived from Milton's Masque of Comus). COMUS was founded by Michael Bawtree, Gabriel Charpentier, and Maureen Forrester, whose aim was to develop and present music theatre works of all kinds in all media.

Concert Productions International (familiarly, CPI). Major promoter of rock concerts and tours in North America. It was established in Toronto in 1973 as a subsidiary of WBC Productions Ltd by Michael Cohl, William (Bill) Ballard, and David Wolinsky.

Performances given by one or more artists before audiences which have assembled, and usually paid admission fees, primarily for the purpose of hearing and contemplating music as music, distinct from music performed as an adjunct to other activities such as worship, ceremony, dining, or theatre.

York Winds. Wind quintet formed in Toronto in 1972.